Brazil protects vast new areas of Amazon rainforest

June 2008. Brazil has commemorated World Environment Day by creating four new protected areas, three of them in the Amazon rainforest.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the documents authorizing the three new protected areas in the Amazon, including Mapinguari National Park in Amazonas state, named after a mythical red furry creature supposedly living in the rainforest.

Mapinguari National Park
Mapinguari National Park is designed to preserve savannah areas of the Purus and Madeira river valleys. It is an area of great biological diversity with unique ecosystems that offer great potential for scientific research and eco-tourism, according to the government of Brazil. In addition, there are two new extractive reserves - Ituxi in Amazonas state and another on the River Xingu in Pará state.

10,000 square miles newly protected
The new areas would expand the extent of protected rainforest by 2.6 million hectares, or 10,000 square miles, an area just slightly smaller than the nation of Belgium.

The protected areas close a green circle that, beyond protecting the biodiversity inside its limits, must draw a line to contain the advance of the agricultural takeover of the Amazon rainforest At least 23 million hectares, or 89,000 square miles, of the Amazon rainforest are already protected.

Mahogany protected
President Lula's proposal is yet to be approved by Congress and could yet face legal challenges. The president also signed a decree protecting mahogany trees and another creating an inter-ministerial group to present proposals to raise financing for conservation of the Amazon rainforest. The donors would not have a say in management of the protected areas and the fund would be managed by the Brazilian Development Bank.

The president said Brazil's record of environmental preservation is equal to that of any country in the world. "Europe, for example, only has 0.3 percent of its native forest still standing. Brazil still has 69 percent," the president said.
The resignation in mid-May of former environment minister activist Marina Silva raised fears among environmentalists that Brazil may be turning its back on rainforest protection. As if to show the world that this is not the case, Carlos Minc, Brazil's new environment minister, announced the government's commitment to create the new protected areas on May 29, at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, CBD, in Bonn. He also expressed commitment to zero net deforestation by 2020.